


Just Galuf

by inkycompass



Category: Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy V
Genre: Gen, many feelings from a gachapon game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 15:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18391661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkycompass/pseuds/inkycompass
Summary: Despite all the kings and princesses, one group of royals has remained silent about their position--and it hasn't gone unnoticed. Takes place between the Interdimensional Labyrinth and Interlude.





	Just Galuf

With several dozen people now among the ranks of Materia's warriors, no single airship could contain them all in comfort. It became fairly usual for people to form walking parties and travel overland in quest of signs of Mog's foreshadowed dark presence, and the new allies who continually fell through the Torsions--though it had started with comrades from one particular world or another, other groupings had formed. There were the soldiers, people like Lightning and Squall and Cloud, who fought by way of making a living. There were the scholars who debated endlessly and continually halted their progress to examine the artificial ecosystem the gods had made. Protectors, adventurers, people from worlds of knights and castles and people who fitted better into the gleaming spires of Utopia Niveus and Capta Est, all mixing and mingling in this strange conglomerate world. 

This week, everyone from Galuf's world--which was to say, the two worlds--had elected to join the overland group. Faris had grown restless with everyone else monopolizing the airship controls, and Bartz would take any excuse to get his feet on solid ground.

Galuf huffed and puffed his way up a steep incline, thanks to one of the _other_ groups that had joined them on land: the monks. The boy had already been snared by Yang and Yda, and as much as Galuf would confront sirens and demons to protect his friends, his willingness fell short of subjecting himself to the monks' daily torture sessions. Instead he amused himself by tracing the footprint of the castle that gave the namesake to this "Lost Kingdom of Thronus." Materia and Spiritus obviously hadn't paid too close attention to the real ruins they'd used as model, because those fallen turrets and crumbling walls didn't look like they could have ever stood in the first place. If they'd wanted a solid castle, they should have looked in Bal.

He found what he was searching for at the top of the crest and groaned, because she was characteristically sitting on a ledge and banging her heels against the rock, quite unconcerned with the height. "Be careful up there, my girl."

"It's solid enough," said Krile, giving the rock another kick to emphasize its safety. "Don't worry. I'm not going to fall off and get _amnesia--_ "

"That only happened once!" Galuf grumbled and sat down beside her, though his knees would make him pay to get back up. He followed her gaze and chuckled to see that Sabin had managed to wrangle Vaan as well. Now he and Bartz seemed to be trying to hide behind each other as their brawnier opponents circled, shouting instructions. "Speaking of getting knocked on the head...."

She giggled. "Poor Bartz. He'll have to be faster next time." Her eyes roamed the landscape. "Oh look! They're here too. I wonder why Lenna and Faris don't join them?"

Galuf's inside gave a familiar stir of unease at the group Krile now pointed at--their little band of acknowledged royals, all chatting in a clearing. "So you think Faris is going to hang around those two flirts? Or watch them talk to Lenna without threatening to--" He searched for a suitably piratical intimidation. "--string them up with their own intestines?"

"She'll have to do that to Edge, but I think Edgar's already given up. He only ever says anything once."

"And how do you know that?" Galuf looked at her and directed a narrow gaze towards the young king. "Don't go talking to him any more than you have to."

She giggled at the look on his face. "Oh, he's not so bad. It's easy to take the wind out of his sails--I think he actually likes making a show of it."

Edgar might be harmless, but that didn't make Galuf like the idea any better. "There's another reason," he said, indicating another knot of people nearby; those who deemed themselves knights and retainers. "Faris and Lenna don't want anyone fretting around when they're jumping into danger. "

"Someone trying to mind Faris?" That made her laugh even louder. "I'd like to see that."

"I think it'd go something like that," said Galuf, pointing back towards the training session. Krile burst into giggles and Galuf chortled alongside her; they were just in time to see Vaan go sailing through the air thanks to some insufficient defense gainst Sabin. Galuf was busy congratulating himself again on his escape when Krile spoke up again.

"Is that why we're all keeping quiet about it?"

His laughter stopped. That... had not been the question he'd expected. He ought have, probably. With few companions her own age growing up, Krile had learned to watch and listen to the adults around her, whether they intended that she be observing them or not. He'd taken it for granted that she would pick up on their silence, without being ready to actually justify it. "What, you think I need to go announcing myself to keep those whippersnappers in line?" he laughed. "Anyway, they've got all that being grave and responsible covered." She'd spot the equivocating, he knew, particularly as that group included Edge.

"I think they could use a little less gravity. Anyway, most people seem pretty casual about it."

"Oh, come on." Galuf shook his head. "Firion was one of the first people you met. He'll run out of room for all those stars in his eyes if he ever learns Faris and Lenna are princesses."

That got her to laugh again. "He's got so many people to moon after, he won't have enough time to bother you three." But despite her teasing, Krile hadn't taken her eyes off of him. Well, she knew the answer to that, dammit. Galuf had never been one to strut about Bal, wearing his crown like it was some sort of... crown. Faris obviously wouldn't. The only one who might bring it up was Lenna, and in that case, Krile ought to be interrogating her.

His eye strayed back to the royals and landed on Garnet, deep in conversation with Ashe. There was someone who worried him. Oh, she sang, and she smiled, and she flirted with that thief of hers. But whenever Galuf spoke to her, he saw the weight of responsibility in her eyes. She was hardly two years older than Krile, and yet it was clear to him that she was no longer a child.

He thought back suddenly to that moment in the Ronka Ruins, when the sight of Krile had brought everything back to him, filling him with the knowledge that had been missing from purpose--and the love that had driven him. Love for his country, for his people, but most of all for her. That he had ever been capable of forgetting Krile haunted him at nights--the only family he had in any world, and he'd not even recognized her face when the Siren attacked him with it. He had vowed to himself that he would never forget again.

Yet the more he thought of it, the more he did feel some new gap. He looked from Garnet and back to Krile, struck by an image of her sitting on the throne, just as she was now. He hoped it wouldn't be like that. She deserved to have her youth for a while longer.

_And she isn't going to._

It hit him like an iron bar. He tried to dismiss it. He couldn't. He could trace the roots of the treacherous notion back to the Interdimensional Labyrinth, when Exdeath had revealed himself. _Even if it consumes the very last of my energies, I will defeat you,_ he'd said, and thank heavens Krile hadn't been there to overhear it. She had ridden a meteorite and leapt blind through a Torsion, trekked through hostile lands and fought the fiercest monsters here without fear or hesitation. When dangers were absent she traipsed around freely, chatting with the other youngsters and prodding at her overserious elders, but at the end of the day, she would return to Galuf's side. She'd told him why, it wasn't a mystery. She didn't know what to do without him there.

She would find out. _Eventually_ , he had always thought, when she was old enough, as everyone did. As dangerous as the world was, he'd done a pretty good job keeping himself alive. Now he thought--no, now he was sure she'd have to learn much sooner.

He jumped as Krile waved her hand in front of his face. "Hey! Are you still there, Grandpa?"

Galuf shook his head in an unsuccessful effort to clear away the presentiment. "We're just trying to protect this world. Why should it matter to anyone that I'm a king and you're a princess? People like Terra and Irvine don't have any titles, but they don't fight any less hard for that." He planted a hand on her head. "King is a job. There's no need to go around telling people."

And she didn't need anyone treating her different. Maybe it was selfish of him... she always knew what to say to turn off the king and bring out Grandpa, and he didn't want to lose that. Maybe it was unrealistic. Suspecting what he did, she might do better to learn how it was to be seen as something other than simply your own self, now, before she was forced to bear it alone. But... "If anyone asks, it's just us. All right?"

"Okay, okay." She was a perceptive little imp, but the grin she gave him seemed mercifully without suspicion of what he'd been thinking. "The secret's safe with me, just Grandpa."


End file.
